Bessant directly blames the Ministry of Commerce for not placing Megaspeed on the trade blacklist

U.S. Treasury Secretary Bessent accused the U.S. Department of Commerce on the 13th of not including Huida’s Singaporean customer Megaspeed on the trade blacklist. Huang Le, a senior executive at Megaspeed, was at the center of the affair scandal involving former Huida CEO Huang Renxun. She was accused of being a Chinese spy and suspected of smuggling Huida AI chips to China.

In an interview with CNBC's "Squawk Box," Bessant said that for several months, four government agencies, including the U.S. Department of the Treasury, the Pentagon, the State Department and the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, have supported the inclusion of Megaspeed in the Commerce Department's entity list, but the Commerce Department has turned a deaf ear. He said, "The Commerce Department has the final say. You have to ask their internal procedures."

Reuters reported that senior White House officials are discussing whether Commerce Secretary Lutnick should be replaced amid the controversy over former Huida CEO Jen-Hsun Huang's extramarital affair with suspected Chinese female spy Huang Le, people familiar with the matter said.

They said that more and more members of Congress are criticizing Lutnick for refusing to put more than 100 Chinese companies on the trade blacklist and questioning his inadequate supervision of Huida chip exports to China.

The report pointed out that although Huang Renxun announced his resignation as CEO and director on the 12th, as the relevant controversy continued to expand, accusations that Lutnick failed to control the export of AI chips to China also emerged. Huang Le's Singapore-based Megaspeed company has purchased more than US$4.8 billion in Huida AI chips since June 2024.

The news website Axios disclosed on the 11th that Trump approved taking action against companies suspected of transferring Huida AI chips to China in at least May, August and early this month; however, Lutnick delayed the implementation of the order.

Reuters also reported that the Trump administration has suspended the inclusion of Chinese AI startup Deepin Research, memory giant Changxin Memory, and more than 100 other companies that may pose U.S. national security risks to the trade blacklist. Since October 2025, there have been no new companies added to the entity list, which is the longest update interval in more than 10 years.